Home Page (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
Featuring Justin Hall, Harold Rheingold, Jaime Levy, Julie Petersen, Carl Steadman, Marjorie Silver, Denise Tenorio, Doug Block. Not Rated (the equivalent of a mild R for profanity, brief nudity and general weirdness).
Trying to decipher the true nature and purpose of the internet is akin to trying to figure out the meaning of life, in that it is an impossible endeavor. Even in 1996, when this movie was shot, the world wide web was so many different things to so many different people; now, it has become an institution comparable to television. Everyone's got it, some can't live without it. While it may be exceedingly difficult to "figure out" the net, it would be nice if we could make some sense out of it and that is exactly what the new documentary Home Page, in its mature, thoughtful manner, tries to do.
Filmmaker Doug Block started out with the honorable intention of making a film diary of his adorable little toddler daughter. That was until he met Justin Hall. A college student at the time, Hall is what we commonly call a "nerd." He dresses bizarrely, spends an exorbitant amount of time staring at the computer screen and, most interestingly, posts every detail of his life on his webpage (http://www.links.net).
Block follows Justin through the next few years of his eccentric existance and is inspired to make his own webpage, a journal of his documentary travails (The D-Word). Justin, meanwhile, goes on a country- spanning trip promoting the internet. His Odyssey finally lands him in San Francisco, where he moves in with famed internet author and guru Howard Rheingold, whom he greatly admires. They work on the development of "Electric Minds," an ambitious web magazine that went "out of business" some seven months after its launch.
The film's focus isn't just on Justin; indeed, we become intimately familiar with some other interesting people such as Rheingold himself, Julie (http://www.awaken.org), Justin's former honcho at HotWired (a web magazine where he was an intern), as well as the people behind Suck, a popular, satirical internet publication. These folks all offer their theories on the web; some are funny, some are weird, all are interesting.
Home Page begins by abandoning all skepticism. Block acknowledges the fact that the internet is indeed the future and goes from there. His subjects' musing comes off as intelligent speculation from people who know what they are talking about, rather than disjointed ramblings of web weirdoes, which he easily could have given us. The film works because it isn't gimmicky or pretentious, rather, it's sincere. Here is a film with an affection for its subject.
Block finally comes up with the obvious: the internet is a place where a person of any race, religious affiliation, personality and generation can communicate and find people with similar interests. For some it is a way of life, for others it's but a mild diversion, but it has something for everyone. Granted, this is fairly simple stuff but Block finds creative, personal ways of presenting it, until we begin to get a more thorough understanding of the web's significance and its meaning in all of our lives. Home Page doesn't serve as an instigator of new and radical ideas, rather, it pushes an already realized and still valid thought up a notch.
The movie ends with a shot that is at once chilling and promising: a girl stares, transfixed, at a computer monitor while the notorious internet logon phone sound plays in the background. There is a child with an advantage, gazing at the future with those wide, endlessly curious eyes.
Grade: B+
©1999 Eugene Novikov
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